'Deer Czar' calls for mending fences with DNR in Appleton

Apr. 17, 2012

APPLETON — Hunters and landowners should play a crucial role in managing Wisconsin's deer herd in the future on a hyper-local level, the state's independent deer consultant said Monday in Appleton.

Data collection responsibility will go much deeper than current deer management units in the plans laid out by James Kroll, Gov. Scott Walker's "deer czar" who is evaluating the Department of Natural Resources deer plans.

"The DNR has taken the helm for so long that you've let go of some of the responsibility and it's time to take some of that back," Kroll said to a crowd of about 200 hunters at Appleton North High School Monday.

Read the interim report of findings by the Wisconsin white-tailed deer trustee and review committee here.

Monday's stop was the first in Kroll's series of six hearings around the state to gather feedback on his initial report presented in March. The state hired the Texas-based researched dubbed "Dr. Deer" as contractor for $125,000 to audit the state's deer management program.

Kroll said the long festering distrust of the DNR is "like a marriage gone bad," and that hunters will need to work with the state biologists to manage the herd in the future. He called for a more facilitative approach, rather than strict regulation for management.

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The initial report was critical of what Kroll said are inaccurate population counts and a failed attempt to eradicate chronic wasting disease, a fatal brain ailment in deer found in southern Wisconsin.

Many of the auditor's recommendations focus on rethinking regulations that are set by deer management units roughly the size of counties.

Instead, individual "site-specific" lands could be regulated by landowners themselves.

David Guynn, professor emeritus at Clemson University, is one of Kroll's consultants who spoke Monday in favor of a "deer management assistance program," he helped build in Mississippi. Currently, 18 states use the system.

"Individual landowners can manage the deer herd like they want," Guynn said. "They meet with a biologist then distribute tags to hunters of their choice to that specific piece of land."

Kroll stressed Monday that the meetings are not intended to criticize the DNR, but look for solutions and ways to work together on deer management.

When the report was first published, the DNR's big game ecologist Kevin Wallenfang downplayed some of its recommendations.

He said Monday in a phone interview he's anxious to see some of the final recommendations, but that plans for implementation of new strategies are up in the air.

"I'm not sure how that process will work. The deer trustee is outside of the DNR since he was hired by the Department of Administration," Wallenfang said. "There has been no discussion on how the recommendations will be put into motion. Many will require funding, and I'm sure the Legislature will be involved."

Kroll's final report is due at the end of June, but he pledged Monday to continue work until his recommendations are put into place.

Joe Harkner, a hunter from Omro, travelled to the hearing for an "outsiders" perspective on the herd.

"We need to step back and take a look at everything," Harkner said. "The herd health might not go back to the quality of the hunts in the 2000s, but it needs to be better than it is now."

Spotting deer while bow hunting has been a challenge in recent years, said Chuck Dorn, from Appleton who hunts near Merrill.

"I'm not a trophy hunter and I'll take a mature deer, either a doe or a buck," Dorn said. "Like most people I think the DNR has done a poor job, and I've seen the fewest deer I've seen in 14 years of hunting."

Hunters registered 347,711 white-tailed deer in all combined deer hunting seasons in 2011, including 257,511 in gun seasons and 90,200 in the archery season.